Wells Fargo Mortgage Review

Wells Fargo Mortgage is a subsidiary of a Federally chartered depositor bank which merged with Norwest Bank in 1998 an has become the second largest mortgage originator.

Wells Fargo Mortgage is part of the $40 Billion Wells Fargo Bank mega-company that once again has been a darling of stock brokers and mutual fund managers for over two decades. It is no accident Wells Fargo has had incredible stock price appreciation mainly due to their mortgage operation.

The business model of “hook’em with a free checking account” and then cross-sell the customer everything from expensive home loans to over priced investments was perfected by Wells Fargo.

ACORN, a consumer watch group, continually charges Wells Fargo Mortgage with predatory lending practices especially with their subprime and home equity loan programs. They even went as far as picketing the home office in California to stage a protest.

I don’t sell Wells Fargo Mortgage products as their rates are higher than other wholesale lenders in the marketplace.

Unlike less famous lenders, they don’t rely on their mortgage broker network since their own branch banks have such a wide spread national presence.

Wells Fargo Mortgage recently suspended their wholesale operation citing broker abuses in the subprime industry as the impetus. However, the fallacy of this argument was obvious when just few weeks later Wells Fargo Mortgage suspended all wholesale operations.

I don’t trust them…neither should you.

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Good Luck!

UPDATE 3-20-2008: The Chairman of Wells Fargo Mortgage parent company Wells Fargo & Co., received less total compensation for 2007 than the previous year…31% less to be exact. However, even in the wake of a mortgage meltdown, the head of Wells Fargo’s home and consumer finance division, got a pay raise! Leave it to a bank to increase the pay of some executives when the stock price at it’s high in 2007 was $37.99 a share dumpling to a low of $24.38 a share in January of 2008.

Gosh, if they treat the shareholders with such disrespect, who do you think you as a customer will get treated?

Author: Rob K. Blake
Published March 20, 2008
Modified March 20, 2008